Monday, May 6, 2013

The craziness of the final weeks of the year has certainly settled in. We are in the midst of PALS assessments and it is crunch time for last minute state test prep. We are running final remediation groups and doing all we can to help prepare our students for their next big step. Students often need to work independently during this period as I run assessment checks or call small groups for reteaching. My students are well trained on how to conduct repeated rereading of poems, how to illustrate them for meaning and how to complete follow ups.

I am also thinking of ways to make content connections in an effort to maximize instructional time and learning. Here is a small set of poetry follow ups that I am using to give students practice with reading test questions. The repeated rereadings of the poem allow them to build their fluency and expression at the same time. Plus they tie into our current science unit on soil.